Trouble Magnet
by Lydia2
Summary: Knowing a certain elf and human will have to be friends for the Fellowship to succeed, Manwe sends a special messenger to bring that about while the man is still young NO Slash


Disclaimer: I do not own anything or anyone though I did make up Tristram. Also, paragraph #5 references Cassia's story, "First Meetings" with her permission so I don't own that scene.

This is just a piece of silliness I came up with last night. 

Manwe sighed and sent for one of the Maia. This particular one had not been sent to Arda with the Five for a reason—he was a practical joker and no one was safe with him around. Tristram hurried in and stood before the Vala, who sighed again.

"Tristram, I have a mission for you, to go to Arda for a short time. There are a particular elf and man who have to become friends or Middle Earth will be doomed. The man will be no problem, because he has been raised by elves, but the elf has been raised to mistrust and dislike humans. I need you to find a way to bring them together into friendship. You may use any of your—methods—you prefer, but don't permanently maim either of them. They will need to be in full health when it is time for them to save the world so you will have to start now."

Tristram grinned and bowed, before hurrying out to leave. He had just dyed Varda's hair purple and was glad to have a chance to be gone before Manwe found out. Using the methods that those who had earlier been sent to Arda had to forego, he became invisible and flew over the sea to Imladris. Though the audible report had been short, information had come to him in his mind with each fact so he knew exactly where he had to go, and whom he was bringing together.

He also knew exactly what he was going to do. Giving a laugh that would have done Sauron credit, he hovered above Imladris until he saw one of his charges, a twenty-year-old man named Aragorn who was about to set out on a horse. Looking closely, Tristram could see a faint aura about him, a reddish gold that said he was very much a troublemaker, though not of the degree that the Maia himself was. And not even the brightness of the twin sons of Elrond, whose auras were very strong due to many centuries of experience at causing and attracting all kinds of trouble.

Tristram's gift was seeing such auras and manipulating them. He did so now, strengthening the Dunadan's until he was almost too bright to look upon by those who had the proper vision. The color was now much redder, that being the color of attracting trouble. His victim would now call every orc, warg, spider, evil man and elf, and any height would immediately call for him to fall from it. The Maia decided to see what would happen next before setting upon the unsuspecting Legolas. With another chuckle, he flew above Aragorn as the man set off on his first lone voyage, a trip to make his first meeting with the Mirkwood elves.

His prank pulled off perfectly, almost too well in fact. Aragorn went across a dangerous plain, fought off orcs, and then fell off a cliff, right into the lap of Legolas, practically. From there he went on to kill a few more wargs and orcs and save the elf's life. He watched as the friendship got off to a good start, and then went up to the mountains for a few months to tease the eagles before checking in again.

When he returned, he was forced to dim the aura temporarily before the two friends could be killed, but once that was over, he strengthened it again, knowing that this friendship would have to be the strongest possible by the time of the quest. And it did grow through the adversities thrown at him. He in fact overheard Lord Elrond wondering several times what Power had conspired so strongly against his son. 

He also noticed that as time went by, those that Aragorn was around started strengthening their own trouble magnet auras. So with a cheerful heart he headed back to Valinor, hoping against hope that his success on the assignment would forestall punishment for his hair prank. Besides, he had several more ideas to work out.

Okay, this was kind of inane, but I did come up with it, if not write it at one in the morning. ^_^


End file.
